Hobo Joe, a sheriff named Jack, Fred & Barney Flintstone and a really old hot dog

It appears that Gavin has gone from riches to rags.  After an evening fit for a prince, Gavin has now reached the opposite extreme of the social spectrum- this weekend he was a hobo. 

Before you judge, let me at least explain.  Gavin's favorite toy is his trusty shopping cart.  Not only is it fun to play with- it's a walking aid as well.  As long as he's leaning on his shopping cart, Gavin will walk and walk and walk...but without it, he's more of a crawling type of guy.  So, we (and by we, I mean me) decided that what was more appropriate than to incorporate Gavin's favorite toy for his 2nd Halloween ever?!  The only two options I could come up with were a hobo or a Walmart worker..and those smocks are really hard to come by.  So this past Saturday, Gavin donned his extra small hat, extra large jacket, his fat (aka. a shirt stuffed with Target bags) and an old hankie...and thus you have the cutest hobo Tulsa has ever seen.  

And he was a hard working hobo at that.  He pushed that cart all over Brookside...until we decided he was slowing us down and we took the cart back to the car.  We then realized that we didn't have a place for our his candy, so what do you think we did?  Hobo Joe went on a diet and we pulled out one of the Target bags from underneath his shirt.  Need is the mother of innovation.

Have you ever seen a happier hobo?!

I must say that in all of his cart pushing-

which he did with gusto by the way 

 - our little hobo looked a tad...well, you know....

We decided he looked a tad like Otis from Andy Griffith.  So it was only appropriate that the friend we met up with was in law enforcement.  Gavin's friend Jackson was dressed as the cutest little sheriff this side of Mayberry...and he definitely was out to keep Gavin in line.  I love this picture- I can totally hear Jack saying "sir, I'm going to need to take a look through your shopping cart."

Later Saturday night, Gavin met up with a few other zany characters- Fred and Barney Flintstone (aka. my nephews Paxen and Bennett) were in town from Bedrock and paid us a house visit.  My sister MADE those cute little costumes- aren't they awesome?!

So of course, I have to reminisce that only one short year ago, my sweet little hobo was teeny tiny little hot dog baby...only 7 days old. 

Isn't it amazing how time flies and this...

turns into this?

Gavin goes to a princess party

Gavin shares his birthday with a very close friend who happens to be a girl.  Yesterday she had her birthday party and being the chivalrous, knightly gentleman that Gavin is, he had to be a part of the party.  Her birthday was a princess them, but the invitation said "knightly attire welcomed." So just in case you were wondering, this is is what a Knight Gavin looks like...

If that's not the cutest little handsome knight you've ever seen, then you clearly don't have a lot of exposure to handsome knight party scene.  He's a dashing man among men!   

And if you're waiting for my DIY costume blog to come out, then you'll have to ask Matthew about that one.  He was the primary contributor to the knight outfit that was put together about 45 minutes before the party started.  Not too shabby if you asked me.   

But what do you expect?  I'm a little bit partial towards my little knight. 

Happy Birthday to my baby!!

And the day has come.  Mr. Gavin Cox is officially one.  He was the most unsuspecting of birthday boys and we had a very spectacular family day celebrating the third member of our family unit's special day.
Gavin awoke to his nutty parents singing him "Happy Birthday".  I think he would have rather stayed in bed a tad longer...but we were ready to get the party started.

   

He ate a delightful birthday breakfast of applesauce and oatmeal and then took a birthday bath. After his birthday nap and playing himself "happy birthday" on his birthday kazoo, we took a family trip to the pumpkin patch and petting zoo.

We had so much fun watching our little pumpkin play around and show all of the things that he's learned over the past year.

Gavin rode his very first horse with his daddy as a spotter. 

And then he enjoyed some birthday throws in the air!

He pet a very strange looking sheep that looked like he either had dreadlocks or had been put through the extra hot drying cycle...but either way, Gavin was a fan.

We ended the night by opening a few more presents.

And Gavin konked out playing his new drum.

I can't believe how much fun I've had over the past year, how much I've loved seeing this little boy grow and learn and be more amazing than I could ever dreamed my little boy could be.  If this is only the first year, I can't imagine what the next many, many could possibly hold. 

Happy Birthday, Gavin Levi Cox!

Geronimo!!!

Fun day Fridays are my favorite! A few short months ago, these next few moments would have not been possible. I would have been sitting at a desk working for the man...but THIS Friday, I got to spend the day playing with my little man and his daddy.

Last Friday we decided to take a little adventure out to our own backyard.  

 We highly recommend this destination. 

Check out the last time we played on this playground.  Gavin was just a tiny bit younger...

But a few months have gone by and on Friday Gavin was able to fully enjoy the excitement of our backyard playground.  And to think- we tried to sell it on Craigslist for $200 before we had kids.  I dare say that the next few facial expressions that diving down a slide headfirst elicited were priceless.   

 

 

 

I could not love that little face any more!

When life gives you limes...

then you might be 12 weeks pregnant (according to the Baby Center fruit and veggie baby size benchmarking scale)!!!

Matthew, Gavin and I are happy to announce that Baby Cox #2 is set to arrive in mid-April, 2012.  Our family of three will soon be expanding to a family of four!  Some days it seems a little more surreal than others, but we are thrilled. 

Some days the idea of having two kids under the age of two is a little overwelming- thinking of getting two kiddos dressed and out the door before work or church...or having two kids riding in the back seat...or packing up two kids with all of their stuff for a weekend trip to Texas. Sometimes the very thought of it makes me want to take a nap...so I do!  Then I think about how Matthew and I will be the two parents in charge of those two kiddos which is even more surreal!

  The most mind-boggling thought of all of them though is that God could somehow make room in our hearts for double the love and joy and amazingness that we've felt in our hearts over the past year.  I just don't know how it could happen!  The thought of having two Gavin's just blows me away- and then I remember that this baby is its own little person with its own little personality and attitude and character traits and facial features...and then that blows me away even more.  I'm glad that I have 28 more weeks to get used to all of this. 

Thanks be to God for his indescribable gifts!!

11 months

Is anyone else doing a countdown of the number of Gavin calendar pictures that are left?  Just me?  Oh okay...well in case you're not keeping up- there are only two more!  Actually one since this is the 11 month post.  I can't believe my tiny little jelly bean baby is now one month shy of being a year (okay, okay- I'm slow about posting, at "press time" he's only 17 days shy of being a year.  Don't make a mother cry!)

 

Gavin is doing something new everyday.  I know the big question that everyone wants to ask- is he walking?  And the answer is not yet.  He loves pushing things- he'll push things all the livelong day..but when it comes to stepping out free-style, he's not too much into that.  He's taken a couple of "lunge steps" but as for walking, he's not into that right now. 

As you can see, we're working on the sippy cup.  He's actually kind of getting the hang of it...and we're slowly transitioning to whole milk mixed with formula...which makes for some really fun diapers. 

Gavin is at such a fun stage and I feel like every day there is a new fun "Gavin story".  He's really enjoying mimicking things that Matthew and I do- like our "Halloween laugh".  Last night I was reading him his usual bed time ("I love you through and through") and there was a picture of a little boy crying with his mouth wide open and tears jumping off the side of his face.  I looked over at Gavin and he was trying to mimic the little boys face and made this little fake crying noise.  I don't know if you have ever seen a more amused mother.  That got him 5 extra minutes of play time before bed!

Every day we inch closer and closer to the one year mark.  As much as I joke about crying and not being able to believe it, I am so excited to see this little man grow up.  I love every new stage, every new milestone.  I love seeing a little bit more of his personality shine through each day.  It's like a huge giant jigsaw puzzle of a person and all I have are a few of the peices; I can tell it's going to be great, but I won't know just how great until we get further into it.   

So here's to one more month and one more peice of the puzzle.

Stuff Gavin isn't supposed to be doing...

Call James Dobson!  We have a strong willed child on our hands!  Okay, well maybe it's not that bad...but we have caught Gavin doing some pretty ornery things lately.  I would say the fault is probably 75/25 (majority ownership to the parent's)  And by that I mean that we'd probably be a lot more convincing in our discipline if we didn't say "no no" smiling with a camera in front of our face.

Here are some of the rules in the Cox house:

1) People under 2 feet tall are not allowed to rummage through the refrigerator- especially those who do not have the coordination to ensure that major spills do not occur.  There must be a special, high pitched noise that goes off in our house when someone opens the refrigerator; a noise that can only be heard by dogs and babies, because when the refrigerator door opens, Gavin comes acrawling.  I think he wants to live on the bottom shelf. 

2) No one in the Cox house is allowed to crawl in the additional storage space underneath the oven (please note that this is not a broiler and that the oven was also NOT on...although we actually are really strict about this whether the oven is on or not since we know he doesn't know the difference). 

3) No one in the Cox house is allowed to drink red food dye directly from the bottle...for any reason (I have to tell Matthew this all the time!) I must say, this whole ordeal could have been a WHOLE lot worse..and he's crying not because it tastes bad, but because I took the bottle out of his mouth.  And then we baby proofed the pantry...

4) People who don't know how to write are not allowed to have pens.  This is a very favorite obsession of Gavin's- he loves pens, straws...really anything sharp and pointed that he could wield into his eye.  Nice.  If you look really closely, you will see that he has a pen mark on his upper lip...and he's pretty pleased about it.  

5) You are not allowed to pretend that you're a samurai until you're at least 10.  Why I thought it was a good idea to buy a low sitting vase that would house hundreds of, you guessed it, sharp & pointed things, is beyond me.  Fortunately, Gavin forgets that we have this a good portion of the time...but when he's reminded, Look out!  

I am not sure if this list of rules is on any of James Dobson's top five lists...but we're working on it.